ſacred taſk. He denies woman reaſon, ſhuts her out from knowledge, and turns her aſide from truth; yet his pardon is granted, becauſe 'he admits the paſſion of love.' It would require ſome ingenuity to ſhew why women were to be under ſuch an obligation to him for thus admitting love; when it is clear that he admits it only for the relaxation of men, and to perpetuate the ſpecies; but he talked with paſſion, and that powerful ſpell worked on the ſenſibility of a young encomiaſt. 'What ſignifies it,' purſues this rhapſodiſt, 'to women, that his reaſon diſputes with them the empire, when his heart is devotedly theirs.' It is not empire,—but equality, that they ſhould contend for. Yet, if they only wiſhed to lengthen out their ſway, they ſhould not entirely truſt to their perſons, for though beauty may gain a heart, it cannot keep it, even while the beauty is in full bloom, unleſs the mind lend, at leaſt, ſome graces.
When women are once ſufficiently enlightened to diſcover their real intereſt, on a grand ſcale, they will, I am perſuaded, be very ready to reſign all the prerogatives of love, that are not mutual, ſpeaking of them as laſting prerogatives, for the calm ſatisfaction of friendſhip, and the tender confidence of habitual eſteem. Before marriage they will not aſſume any inſolent airs, nor afterwards abjectly ſubmit; but endeavouring to act like reaſonable creatures, in both ſituations, they will not be tumbled from a throne to a ſtool.
Madame Genlis has written ſeveral entertaining books for children; and her Letters on Education afford many uſeful hints, that ſenſible par-
